, 1887-05-01
A BOOK OF CRIMINALS.
~'Isogue's GalIery"-Ths AdroIt
Crook and His Broker.

FchtAo > y trhlleTY-ln ANFOLL
Crook and His Broker.
While at the chief office of hcr mai
esty's criminal investigation department
at Scotland yard, Parliament street, re-
Gently, [ was shown what l regard as the
most extraordinary book in the world, O
book which has never beer published and
never will be published. It's sanctity is
SO strictly preserved that even when the
authorities want to let a man see some
thing in it, they only show him the one
page which will enable him to discover
whether the man described on it is the
ma against whom he has a complaint to
make. But by a combination of good
luck on one side and good nature on the
other it was the present writer's privilege
to examine the record during the whole
of an afternoon when he was waiting at
the office to identify a gentleman from
Philadelphia.
This book is Che English substitute for
the ''rogues' gallery" at police head
quarters in New York. 1t is not, per-
haps, as useful an arrangement as that of
the tinged frames III Mulberry street, for
the inquirer is only shown a few such
photographs as the police believe will be
likely to be useful in enabling him TO
identify the man he is after. But on the
whole it is perhaps a better plan, for the
huge number of ugly faces crowded to-
gether in the ''rogues' gallery confuse
the eye so much that it is not at all un-
common for a man to select half n dozen
widely different faces one after the other
as that of his despoiler. However this
may be. the huge album in London is
much more interesting, inasmuch as each
photograph is pasted on a broad page on
and o the picture, and on the re-
verse of the sheet is written, in the small
est possible hand, a detailed history of the
subject of the photograph, and a concise
account of his methods as well as his
achievements.
Strange as the statement may seem. the
public know nothing of the work of a
really clever crook, and the police them
selves know very little more. The eN-
PLANTATION Of this ignorance is a very
simple one. A crook whose methods are
exposed is a second rate crook. If he
lets the light of day strike his operations
he is no more q first rate crook than a
card sharper who is detected can really
be called a good hand at dumping the
cut. But a private detective, or ICON
tidential inquiring agent - as he is more
g~randiloquently styled in England, if he
has had access to the information pos
sessed by the police, and has also had a
wide experience in Compromises, " really
does get at a good deal of curious knowl-
edge.
An artist, +" as for convenience an
adroit crook may be called to distinguish
him from the blunderers who allow them
selves to be known to the police, requires
two conditions in a ''plant." In the
first place there must be something Zig to
get away with; in the second place the
attendant circumstance must be such
that the mar who is robbed will be more
than willing to cry quits" and keep his
mouth shut in consideration of his getting
back a part of the money. Now this is,
in statutory language, Compromising a
felony" and it is obvious that the man
who has been robbed and who is only
getting back half his loss does not want
to run the risk of being prosecuted in ad-
dition to the calamity of being done out
of his money. So he does not go to the
police at all, and they, therefore, only
know about the crooks who are "chumps''
enough not to keep to windward Of the
cold, stale smell of a Jail by always study
ing out the feasibility of a compromise
before they make the rifle"
There are in London and in every large
European city a class of private detectives
IA Llliht pIOltSSlOu Ol tleSt
compromises" who are neither more
nor less than ''middlemen" between the
public and the predatory classes-in q
word, crooks brokers. The avocation is,
Of course, open to the grave objection that
its practice is essentially a continual break.
ing of the law; and yet, inasnuch as il
enables the victims to get back at any
rate n part of their money, there is some.
thing to be said on behalf of these brokers.
They know the crooks, and the crooks
know n trust them. If a crook will
make a fair deal and let the man he
has played get back a "'fair whack of the
stuff, less, of course the agents COM
mission, the broker will never round ON
the crook. No money could hire him to
do 1t, for If he were once known to have
betrayed n of his crooked clients in this
way, he would be of no further use to his
honest clients, and would lose his bust.
ness connection in a moment
On the other hand, however, if the
crook is obstinate enough to "hogr it all,
or, rs sometimes happens, he goes on q
bender and blows in all the money,
gets drunk and loses it, or, is in turn rob
bed of it, as, by the irony of fate, has
sometimes happened to the writer's know
ledge, or lets the object of his affections
coax it all out of him, the agent will
pounce on him and turn him over to the
police-this, too, without in the least in
iuring his reputation as a square man"
with the other artists. They have an I'M
disguised contempt for a crook who ex-
poets to keep all he gets away with.
They look upon him just as a skillful
theatrical manager would look upon some
short sighted s~peculator who got a house
full of money and held on to it without
giving the audience any "show" in re-
nrn.-Cor. San Francisco Chronicle.